As only 2% of Americans believe her on emails, Hillary's long goodbye is getting shorter

The ground is collapsing under Hillary Clinton’s feet, as friendly liberal pundits turn on her, and a poll revels that a lonely 2% of Americans believe her claim that emails on her private server did not contain classified information. The latest formerly supportive lib pundit to turn on her is Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, arguably the most prominent African-American political pundit. He writes, “Hillary Clinton is her own worst enemy.”

I wish Hillary Clinton would be respectful enough to say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” I wish she wouldn’t insult our intelligence by claiming she only did what other secretaries of state had done. None of her predecessors, after all, went to the trouble and expense of a private e-mail server.

I wish she would explain why, after turning over to the State Department the e-mails she deemed work-related, she had the server professionally wiped clean. The explanation that she didn’t want people prying into private matters such as “planning for [daughter] Chelsea’s wedding . . . as well as yoga routines, family vacations, the other things you typically find in inboxes” is unconvincing. Does she have some secret yoga move she doesn’t want the world to know about?

And I wish I could be sure that Clinton is now, finally, doing everything in her power to ensure that any extant e-mails are turned over to the State and Justice departments. Unfortunately, I can’t. She stonewalled for so long — there’s no other word for her stance — that recent pledges of openness and cooperation ring hollow.

If Clinton now has political problems because of the e-mails — or, potentially, even legal trouble — it’s her own doing.

Robinson stoutly proclaims that “at present” he has no reason to doubt that she will get the nomination. But he frets that she has handed the GOP some strong issues.

Also in the Washington Post today, Karen Tumulty and Elise Viebeck note her allies’ worries:

The problem, her nervous allies say, is that this does indeed feel like familiar territory. And that is why the fact that the Justice Department is now investigating feels so ominous.

“She’s lost the ability to close this story down,” said one prominent Democratic attorney, who has handled many cases involving national security.

And even if the facts of the investigation ultimately do not turn out to be so bad, that means the questions surrounding it could drag on for months—mostly likely, well into the 2016 primary season.

So, the question becomes, who is going to tell Hillary to her face that if she doesn’t get out she will find her former allies turning on her? Noemie Emery poses that issue in the context of Nixon and Watergate in a piece titled “The Long Goodbye”:

Which Democrat will be the one to play Barry Goldwater to the Richard M. Nixon of Hillary Clinton? Who will step up to tell the self-wounded one-time colossus that the time has arrived to go home? (snip)

...worse than the cost of what already happened is the prospect of what still may come. "Until a month ago, one of the arguments I frequently heard ... was that that she'd been vetted like nobody's ever been vetted," wrote Frank Bruni in March. "All the skeletons had been tugged from the Clintons' labyrinthine closets. All the mud had been dug up and flung."

Then came "Clinton Cash" and the conflicts of interest, and when that had sunk in, the unsecured server. Who can swear there's not even more fresh new mud where that came from, ready to start fresh new media frenzies? With the server now in the hands of the government, there's the continuing prospect of fresh new developments from now through November of 2016. News could break during the primaries, after the primaries, during the conventions or shortly before the opening of the polls. Can one run a campaign while under indictment? We may be about to get an answer.

With the number of private server emails under review for classified information today totaling 300+ (up from 60 yesterday), obviously the problems of Hillary have nowhere to go but downhill.

So, which of the Democrats in the power elite will be the one to tell her that it’s time to fold her tent and be the grandma her ads tout?

The ground is collapsing under Hillary Clinton’s feet, as friendly liberal pundits turn on her, and a poll revels that a lonely 2% of Americans believe her claim that emails on her private server did not contain classified information. The latest formerly supportive lib pundit to turn on her is Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, arguably the most prominent African-American political pundit. He writes, “Hillary Clinton is her own worst enemy.”

I wish Hillary Clinton would be respectful enough to say, “I’m sorry. I was wrong.” I wish she wouldn’t insult our intelligence by claiming she only did what other secretaries of state had done. None of her predecessors, after all, went to the trouble and expense of a private e-mail server.

I wish she would explain why, after turning over to the State Department the e-mails she deemed work-related, she had the server professionally wiped clean. The explanation that she didn’t want people prying into private matters such as “planning for [daughter] Chelsea’s wedding . . . as well as yoga routines, family vacations, the other things you typically find in inboxes” is unconvincing. Does she have some secret yoga move she doesn’t want the world to know about?

And I wish I could be sure that Clinton is now, finally, doing everything in her power to ensure that any extant e-mails are turned over to the State and Justice departments. Unfortunately, I can’t. She stonewalled for so long — there’s no other word for her stance — that recent pledges of openness and cooperation ring hollow.

If Clinton now has political problems because of the e-mails — or, potentially, even legal trouble — it’s her own doing.

Robinson stoutly proclaims that “at present” he has no reason to doubt that she will get the nomination. But he frets that she has handed the GOP some strong issues.

Also in the Washington Post today, Karen Tumulty and Elise Viebeck note her allies’ worries:

The problem, her nervous allies say, is that this does indeed feel like familiar territory. And that is why the fact that the Justice Department is now investigating feels so ominous.

“She’s lost the ability to close this story down,” said one prominent Democratic attorney, who has handled many cases involving national security.

And even if the facts of the investigation ultimately do not turn out to be so bad, that means the questions surrounding it could drag on for months—mostly likely, well into the 2016 primary season.

So, the question becomes, who is going to tell Hillary to her face that if she doesn’t get out she will find her former allies turning on her? Noemie Emery poses that issue in the context of Nixon and Watergate in a piece titled “The Long Goodbye”:

Which Democrat will be the one to play Barry Goldwater to the Richard M. Nixon of Hillary Clinton? Who will step up to tell the self-wounded one-time colossus that the time has arrived to go home? (snip)

...worse than the cost of what already happened is the prospect of what still may come. "Until a month ago, one of the arguments I frequently heard ... was that that she'd been vetted like nobody's ever been vetted," wrote Frank Bruni in March. "All the skeletons had been tugged from the Clintons' labyrinthine closets. All the mud had been dug up and flung."

Then came "Clinton Cash" and the conflicts of interest, and when that had sunk in, the unsecured server. Who can swear there's not even more fresh new mud where that came from, ready to start fresh new media frenzies? With the server now in the hands of the government, there's the continuing prospect of fresh new developments from now through November of 2016. News could break during the primaries, after the primaries, during the conventions or shortly before the opening of the polls. Can one run a campaign while under indictment? We may be about to get an answer.

With the number of private server emails under review for classified information today totaling 300+ (up from 60 yesterday), obviously the problems of Hillary have nowhere to go but downhill.

So, which of the Democrats in the power elite will be the one to tell her that it’s time to fold her tent and be the grandma her ads tout?